Lord Of The Rings Online Welcome Back Week

Need a way to make Lord Of The Rings even better? Create a musical version!

I got an unexpected email from Codemasters today telling me that my Lord of the Rings Online account will be reactivated for a week, from 10th May 10th until 17th May. As far I know this is for the European version of LotRO only and doesn’t affect US players as they already had a similar offer recently at the end of April.

To be honest, I was quite surprised to get this notice because Codemasters already offered a welcome back week at the start of March, only a mere two months ago. Although I wasn’t at all tempted back then as I was so heavily engrossed in WoW, I’m a lot more tempted this time round because my interest in WoW is wavering a bit. Plus, I keep hearing great things about LotRO and I even already own the Mines of Moria expansion so maybe this is a good opportunity to give it all another go and try rolling a Warden. But I’m not going to.

I totally forgot about it when I was reading the LotRO email but next week is also the release of Rise of the Godslayer, the new Age of Conan expansion, which I’ve already pre-ordered. I highly doubt this it’s a coincidence and it’s likely a ploy from Codemasters to try and frustrate as many old players as possible. Sigh, why couldn’t they have reactivated my account this week? But no, instead they make me choose between R.E. Howard and J.R.R. Tolkien. Even though Tolkien has more initials unfortunately for him I’m going to go with Howard and forgo a LotRO reunion in favour of returning to Age of Conan, simply because I get to hack people’s heads off in it. When was the last time Frodo gutted his enemy with a rusty sword and then laughed in their face? Middle-earth just isn’t in quite the same league as Hyboria.

Thanks to you, I too have resubbed to AoC and I am looking forward to Godslayer as well. I had forgotten just how much I enjoyed the first 20 levels. I created a brand new HoX and Tortage is still a brilliant starting experience.

I have always liked LOTRO, but for whatever reason it scratches the exact same itch that WoW does for me so I inevitably end up playing WoW instead since it has its hooks in deep. Still, with the recent change that made the story missions soloable ( I believe that was the case) I am very tempted to try it out again as well.

I keep having LOTRO recommended to me when I say I want a story-based MMO. And I know they’ve got it going on, too, but the mechanics have seemed clunky every time I give the trial a shot. It plays too similarly to other MMOs that feel more “solid” when I play them. I don’t know if that makes sense.

I do hate I’ve never been able to try any of the Book quests I hear so much about, though.

Who am I?

Gordon was born on the mean-streets of suburban Holland and learned to fist fight without remorse in steel cage matches at an early age. He now lives in Edinburgh with his wife and their imaginary Nigerian bodyguard, Mr Itunu.